Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

CHURCHILL, Winston. The Major Works of Winston Churchill. London: Diners Club, 1974. 25 vols., ‘Centenary’ edition, 8vo (228 x 139mm.) Photographic frontispieces. Original faux leather gilt, two black morocco labels to spines, g.e. (occasional scuff) (25).

SIGNED BOOK. – Horace SMITH-DORRIEN. Memories of Forty-Eight Years’ Service. London: John Murray, 1925. First edition, inscribed and signed by the author on a mounted slip of paper to front pastedown, 8vo (223 x 146mm.) Photographic plates, maps, including 3 folding. (Occasional light spotting.) Original black cloth (joints splitting). Note: Smith-Dorrien was a British Army General who served in the Boer War and later in India and Egypt. In the First World War Lord Kitchener put Smith-Dorrien in charge of the British Expeditionary Force Corps II. Provenance: Jim Crawford (gift inscribed to from the author). – And a further sixteen volumes relating to Africa (including C.T. Atkinson’s ‘The South Wales Borderers 24th Foot 1689-1937’, 1937, 8vo, and Melton Prior’s ‘Campaigns of a War Correspondent’, 1912, 8vo, and G. Hamilton-Browne’s ‘A Lost Legionary in South Africa’, [1912], 8vo, and ‘Sir William Butler, an Autobiography’, 1911, 8vo) (17).

MILITARY. – George Henry ROBERTSON. Brigade Parade Diagrams for the Three Arms. Bombay: Holder & Co., 1853. Author’s copy, folio (418 x 274mm.) Title, dedication, 6pp. ‘Notes on Movements in Brigade’, 18 lithographed plates of brigade movements, includes a loosely inserted letter from the ‘Adjutant General of the Army’ to the author. Original black half morocco-backed paper-covered boards, paper label mounted to upper cover (extremities rubbed, minor scuffing and nicks to lower cover, staining to front pastedown). Note: scarce. The loosely inserted letter, dated 18th June 1853, from Lieutenant Colonel H. Hancock commends Robertson for his ‘zeal’ and ‘successful exertions’ in writing the book. He says that the ‘Notes’ are ‘quite correct’ and that ‘no Brigadier can go wrong if he will adhere to them’. He also writes that, while the plates ‘appear to be in accordance with the Field Exercise Book- His Excellency… disapproves of sending out detached Adjutants… or mounted officers to the front and making a new line indicates to the Enemy the intended position’.

BINDINGS. – Charles A. LIDGEY. Wagner. London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1902. Second edition, 8vo (171 x 126mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, tissue-guard, engraved plates. (Mild toning.) Near contemporary full blue morocco by Bumpus, g.e. (some fading). – And a further thirty-five volumes, mostly Victorian literature and history (36).

BINDINGS. – Desiderius ERASMUS. Colloquia Familiaria Selecta. Perth: R. Morison, 1791. 12mo (157 x 86mm.) Title. (Browned, spotting.) Contemporary calf, gilt coat-of-arms of Edinburgh to covers (stained to edges, scuffed and rubbed). Note: scarce. – And a further forty-three volumes (including Walter Scott’s ‘The Lady of the Lake, a Poem’, [engraved plates only, as issued], 1811, 8vo, and Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs’, [circa 1895], 8vo, and Samuel Ireland’s ‘Picturesque Views of the River Thames’, [vol. 1 only, of 2], 1801, 4to) (44).

SUSSEX. – Henry CHEAL. The Ships and Mariners of Shoreham. London: F.M. Blake, [n.d. but circa 1909.] First edition, 8vo (213 x 132mm.) Numerous plates and illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original cloth-backed boards (lettering to spine faded, lightly rubbed extremities). Note: scarce. – And a further twenty-eight volumes related to Sussex (including Dorothea E. Hurst’s ‘The History and Antiquities of Horsham’, 1889, 8vo, and Kelly’s ‘Directory of Horsham 1962’, 1962, 8vo) (29).

SUSSEX. Kelly’s Directory of Sussex. London: Kelly and Co., 1887. 8vo (258 x 164mm.) Large folding engraved map of Sussex, advertisements. (Toning, chipping to first leaves.) Later red cloth (endpapers replaced). – And a further thirty-one volumes related to Sussex (including Mark Anthony Lower’s ‘A Compendious History of Sussex’, 2 vols., 1870, 8vo, and William Smith Ellis’ ‘The Parks and Forests of Sussex’, 1885, 8vo, and E.J. Tyler’s ‘The Clockmakers of Sussex’, 1988, 4to) (32).

PULP SCIENCE FICTION. Amazing Stories. New York: The Experimenter Publications Inc., August 1930-October 1951. 51 issues, 4to (292 x 216mm.) Colour illustrations. (Browning, some corner creases.) Original wrappers (rubbing, some loss to spines, upper wrapper lacking for ‘June 1935’). Note: an incomplete run, mostly 1930’s. Amazing Stories began in April 1926 and was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction (51).

PULP SCIENCE FICTION. Astounding Stories of Super-Science. New York: W.M. Clayton, October 1930-February 1960. 110 issues, 4to and 8vo (248 x 173mm and 205 x 137mm.) Numerous illustrations, advertisements. (Browning, some corner creasing.) Original wrappers (some with bookseller stamps to upper wrappers, some creasing and tearing). Note: the magazine soon changed to ‘Astounding Stories’ and then in 1938 to ‘Astounding Science Fiction’. Under the editorship of John W. Campbell Jnr. many science fiction writers of the ‘Golden Age’ wrote for ‘Astounding Science Fiction’, including Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard (110).

PULP SCIENCE FICTION. Wonder Stories, the Magazine of Prophetic Fiction. New York: Stellar Publishing Corporation, March 1930. Vol. 1, no. 10-vol. 6, no. 11, April 1935. 29 issues, 4to (292 x 227mm and 252 x 173mm.) Illustrations, advertisements. (Browning, some creasing.) Original wrappers (toning, creasing, some tearing). – And fifteen issues of ‘Unknown Worlds’, October 1940-Summer 1948 (44).

PULP SCIENCE FICTION. Thrilling Wonder Stories, the Magazine of Prophetic Fiction. New York: Beacon Magazines, Inc., October 1936-March 1953. 21 issues, 4to (248 x 173mm.) Numerous illustrations, advertisements. (Browning, creasing.) Original wrappers (creasing). Note: seven of these are the British edition from the 1950’s. – And a quantity of approximately 110 pulp science fiction magazines from 1938-2000, mostly 1980’s (a quantity).

COMICS. – Frank MILLER and Brian AZZARELLO. DK III The Master Race. California, Burbank: D.C. Comics, 2015-2016. 8 vols. [of 9.] Vols. 1-8, 8vo (277 x 173mm.) Numerous colour illustrations. Original pictorial boards. Note: lacking the last volume, no. 9. – And approximately a further 210 comics and comic books (including ‘Finder’ (30), ‘Mind the Map’ (7), ‘Hellblazer’ (57), and ‘Nemesis’ (7), and Frank Miller and Geof Darrow’s ‘Hard Boiled’ (7), and Steve Ditko’s ‘The Creeper’, 2010) (approx. 218).

COMICS. Tiger. London: The Amalgamated Press, 11th September 1954- 27th September 1958. No. 1-212. 209 issues, 4to (312 x 242mm.) Colour and black and white illustrations, advertisements. (Browning, occasional spotting, corner losses.) Original paper wrappers (upper wrapper nearly detached from issue 1, lower wrapper with large tears, spotting). Note: the first appearance of ‘Roy of the Rovers’ occurred in the first issue of ‘Tiger’. This is a consecutive run of the first 212 issues, lacking only issues no. 179, 180 and 182 (209).

SOWERBY, John Edward. English Botany; or, Coloured Figures of British Plants… edited by John T. Boswell Syme. London: Robert Hardwicke, 1863-1892. 13 vols., including the ‘Supplement’, third edition, 8vo (251 x 163mm.) 1936 hand-coloured lithographed plates, some double-paged, including 12 hand-coloured and 2 uncoloured lithographed plates in the ‘Supplement’. (Toning, volumes 1-4 with light spotting on numerous leaves.) Original green blind-stamped cloth, gilt design to upper covers, t.e.g. (rebacked with original spines laid-down, endpapers replaced, lightly rubbed), vol. 12 and ‘Supplement’ in contemporary brown half morocco (sunned to spines). Provenance: Emily Watson (ink name on initial blanks); William Henry Mason (armorial bookplates to front pastedowns of vol.12 and ‘Supplement’) (13).

STRUTT, Joseph. Glig Gamena Angel-Doed. Or, the Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. London: T. Bensley for J. White, 1801. First edition, 4to (312 x 244mm.) Title, ‘Directions to binder’ leaf, 40 hand-coloured engraved plates with tissue-guards. (Spotting to title, lacking text leaves.) Disbound. Note: plates only.

AFRICA. – Napier DEVITT. Galloping Jack. Being the Reminiscences of Brigadier-General John Robinson Royston. London: H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd., [1937.] First edition, 8vo (218 x 132mm.) Portrait frontispiece. (Mild toning.) Original blue cloth (some fading to upper cover). – And a further thirty-eight volumes relating to Africa (including Sonia Clarke’s ‘Zululand at War’, 1984, 4to, and Carel Birkby’s ‘Zulu Journey’, 1938, 8vo, and ‘The Diary of Henry Francis Flynn’, 1950, 8vo, and Joseph Cradd’s ‘African Odyssey’, 1939, 8vo) (39).

CHRISTIE, Agatha. Mrs. McGinty’s Dead. London: Collins for The Crime Club, 1952. First edition, 8vo (179 x 118mm.) 4pp. advertisements to rear. (Toning.) Original grey cloth (spine lean, sunned at top of spine panel), dust-jacket (loss to spine panel, extremities chipped). – And a further twenty-three volumes of 20th century fiction (including Agatha Christie’s ‘A Pocket Full of Rye’, first edition, 1953, 8vo, and ‘The Pale Horse’, first edition, 1961, 8vo, and Terry Pratchett’s ‘Moving Pictures’, first edition, 1990, 8vo, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’, 3 vols., 1966-1971, 8vo, and Aldous Huxley’s ‘After Many a Summer’, first edition, 1939, 8vo, and Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Harlequin’, signed by the author, 2000, 8vo, and Cornwell’s ‘Sharpe’s Fortress’, signed by the author, 1999, 8vo, and Dick Francis’ ‘The Danger’, signed by the author, 1983, 8vo, and Eoin Colfer’s ‘Artemis Fowl’, signed by the author, 2001, 8vo ) (24).

LEE, Stan. The Amazing Spider-Man. Los Angeles: Taschen, 2023. Vol. 2., Collector’s Edition, folio (402 x 274mm.) Numerous colour illustrations. Original pictorial boards, publisher’s shrink-wrap, original box. Note: covers the years 1965-66.

JAZZ. – John CHILTON. The Song of the Hawk, the Life and Recordings of Coleman Hawkins. London: Quartet Books, 1990. First edition, 8vo (232 x 146mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket. – And a quantity of approximately eighty further volumes related to jazz (including eighteen souvenir brochures [some signed], circa 1960’s-1980’s) (a quantity).